It’s hard to have missed the news articles over the past several years on the many health benefits of flaxseed oil. The omega-3 fatty acids in flaxseed oil help lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Other parts of the plant are also useful – the fibers are used to make linen cloth, high quality paper and rope. The seed produces linseed oil which is used as a drying agent in paint and varnish and in making linoleum floors.
Flax is also a wonderful plant for the perennial flower garden. The inch-wide five-petaled flowers are sky blue streaked with darker blue lines and float above stiff, wiry two-foot tall stems with needle-like leaves. The flowers bloom from May to September and even into October or November if the fall is mild. Each flower lasts only one day, but there are so many stems that there is never a day without flowers.
Flax is a tough, long-lived plant. It grows in pretty much any well-drained soil in full sun or light shade. The plants don’t require division and need watering only in extreme drought. Once established, flax needs very little care other than cutting it down in fall, which is easily done with a hedge clippers.
You could transplant a clump of flax from a friend in early spring, but it is just as easy to grow from seed. Don’t waste your money buying a half teaspoon or so of seed in a packet and paying a couple dollars for it. Instead, buy flax seed in bulk at the grocery store for about $1.59 for a whole pound. Yes, this is the same flax seed you buy for using in baking or sprinkling on your yogurt.
In spring, broadcast the seed on the soil and cover it with about a quarter inch of fine soil. Keep moist until it germinates. You should have flowers in about 100 days. Seed can also be planted in fall and left over winter to germinate the following spring.
The flowers produce many seeds and the plant self seeds freely. Any plants growing where you don’t want them are easy to pull up when they are small.
Flax is prettier in a large patch rather than as individual plants. Flax interplanted with red or pink poppies would be gorgeous. Another lovely combination is flax with alliums, lupines and wild geraniums.
Plant flax and beginning just before the peonies and roses bloom in June, you’ll have your own little piece of blooming sky.
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